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    of Acts , though it contains the history of Christianity , and the preaching of Paul as well as pf others ,-dunng a , ldngp ^ riod . ^ , Th ^ 1 $ , incMd , aoknow-Jedged by Dr . w ., inasmuch as fte ; does not reilr ^ t ^ e Acts , but to the Epistles , for the tutlf ^ evelo ^ niilnt 6 f tne Christian scheme ! And not the least remarkable feature of his System is , tlMPauI onl y * and Paul not in the Acts but in the Epistles , is the finisher oOhe faith . f ^ eter and John wrote Epistles as well as Paul , and it is somewhat ^ traiige that they are not appealed to as well as Paul ; tifc&t they dp tot contain the full : ana entire scheme of

    Christianity . £ fof is it aninconsiderabte suspicion against the scheme , that the writer who is on all sides acknowledged to have ** many things hard to be understood , " shoultf'be referred to exclusively for the establishment of these novelties . ' ** , ' : .. I ' " It is commonly supposed by ignorant Christians ( ignorant , 1 mean > of what they might learn from the Bible ) , that Jesus Christ came into the world to preach a true religion ; but in fact he came for no such purpose . He did not come to rhyhe a revelation sc > niuch as to be the subject of a revelation . "

    This assertion is npless bold than it is ingenious . But whose assertion is it * Dr . WhitdV % andlDr . W ., yre presume , is not inspired * Notwithstanding , therefore ^ the imposing manner in which it is introduced , we should have thought as well pf it ^ hajd it be _ en accompanied by some scriptural support * The Doctor increases in boldness : " He was only so far the revealer and Wacb ^ rof . fhe great doctrines of Christianity , as you might call the sun and planers tWdts ^ py ^ rers of the Newtonian system of astronomy . " We have heard talfe (> f pegr | i | iing Christ—we have no wish to raise the cry against Dr . W . ^ - ^ ljutort ^ oiiox . writers would do well occasionally to look at home .

    The reader will notice how unrestricted are the assertions . Jesus is the planetary system , and Paul , we suppose , the Newton who said , Let light be , and light was . Jesus is the passive , and Paul the active agent in the illumination of the world * ¦ c ' Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven that his apostles might declare the great mystery of the divine and human nature . '' We fear that if this were the object of his dying and rising , it was but little realized . Not one instance do we remember in which the first

    preachers of the gospel declare any such absurdity ; and many far-sighted men have doubted if they even intimate the slightest knowledge of such a <} oc { rine . Nor is this , surprising , if they were not only uninstructed therein by their Lord , but left to gather it from his death and resurrection .- His dying proved him to be a man , but how could it prove him to be Almighty God ? But then he arose again—how ? " Whom God hath raised up , " says Peter . Was it likely that Peter would hence conclude that Jesus was either that very God who had raised him from the dead , or , in imitation of . Heathenism ,

    another t and , if another , a subordinate Deity ? But we have something pore to say to the assertion that Jesus did not come to make a revelation , than merely to reply it is destitute of scriptural proof . The man who taunts those who differ from him with ignorance , was at least bound to answer certain passages which seem to set forth Jesus as the revealer of the true God and eternal life *

    The Scriptures represent all the spiritual blessings of Christianity as uoming t <* mm through Cbristr- * and if all blessings , certainly the knowledge of those things wbljch are ; essential ^ acce ptan ce wit h God . And eve n the additional infopmatfop * m rather the interpjfjetation of-the truths previously heard , the . di ? ciple » were led to expect from Christ through the medium of the Cpmfprler- — " He shall take of mine . " A few passages we will quote out of many which . appear to us to have a most adverse aspect on the notion ?

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    Whntely ' s Essays on the Writings pf St . Paul 537

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    VOL . III . 2 P

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 537, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/17/